The Four
by Sheri Ledding
Summary: Four young wizards create and interhouse friendship to last a lifetime!
1. Preface

_This is a story version, written by me, of a role-play I did with three friends in high school. Most of the events come from that role-play, though I made some of them up, especially near the end, based on where I thought/wanted the characters to end up._

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not even Robin, Akir, Alina, Aya, or Eli!_

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I have roamed the halls of this school for longer than memory serves. I am the invisible one, the quiet one. I see all and hear all.

No one talks to me, sees me, hears me, I am unknown. Not even my fellows seem to notice.

And yet I am known. My name, my position. My students know me, though they know me not.

I spend my time and mourn eternity in a corner of the building, occupied by students, quiet like me. Studious and observant. Like me, they see but are rarely seen. Dressed in silver and blue, they disappear into the walls, unnoticed.

As I wander, I take it as my responsibility to watch over them, see them. They are my children, and I, for a time, their surrogate mother.

I, the Grey Lady, the ghost of Ravenclaw.


	2. The Sorting

I cannot tell you the exact year this story begins, for there have been far too many and I have lost count. If my memory serves, it was during Dumbledore's headmastership. After the first fall of the Dark Lord, but before his conqueror joined the throng at Hogwarts. In fact, I would say about seven years before he came, for I know not that he ever knew the children of which this story tells.

Floating through the wall, I took my place among my students, gazing at Hogwarts' brightest. They were a quiet crowd, unlike their opposites, the happy-go-lucky Hufflepuffs. They were calm, as their ambitious peers, the Slytherins, could often be. I find Slytherins a rather amiable group, assuming one watches one's back. They were not, however, calm now. They never were, at the Welcoming Feast. The Rivalry did not allow it. Speaking of the Rivalry, the Slytherin's rivals, the bold Gryffindors, always a bit rash in my opinion, were being absolutely raucous.

As the new students filed in, a silence fell. I allowed it to wash over me as I attempted to spot my new students. I noticed four students in particular. Two girls, a blonde and a brunette, both calm and together, probably good bets for Ravenclaw, and two boys, a blonde and…a Gryffindor. He was an easy placement with his red tipped, black, spiked hair. I was unsure about the blonde. The four seemed to be getting along together. As an observer, I took this in with interest. Little did I know that I was gazing upon not only the greatest interhouse friendship in many years, but the greatest romance in even longer. Now I see, I might have seen it then. It was in their eyes.

As the Sorting began, I kept an eye on these four. They intrigued me. The brunette girl was called up first. "Belbusti, Claire." Professor McGonagall called her name. Italian, apparently. She slipped under the Sorting Hat and was soon joining my table to modest applause. I thought she looked like a Ravenclaw. She also looked rather attached to her kitten.

Soon, the blond girl took her turn. "Jarvinen, Alina." Hmm, sounded Finnish. She, too, was soon joining the Ravenclaw table, sitting near Claire. At a second look, I found her to be incredibly cute, like a princess or a storybook character. She seemed a little mischievous for my students, but that soon lent to the Friendship.

She was immediately followed by the tall, blond boy. "Killingham, Robin." Killingham? Ah, Irish, a Slytherin. It was always difficult to pick the quieter Slytherins from the Ravenclaws. But I remembered his brother, Gregory. Thinking about it as the Hat placed him, I realized he looked quite a bit like his older brother. The Slytherins were gloating over their new addition, as they and the Gryffindors were wont to do. Alina glanced his way, but Claire's eyes followed him. Another sign I should have registered.

A few students later, the final of the four was up. "Manas, Akir." He looked Asian. I was right, he was soon seated at Gryffindor. His mischievous streak looked like Alina's magnified. Alina also followed his path to his seat, though Claire continued to watch Robin, tearing her eyes away only when Alina began to talk to her. Even at eleven, these children were destined for the Friendship and the Great Romance.


	3. First Year

My memory is like a photo album, filled with the moments of my students' lives. Sweet and adorable moments as well as tragic and heart wrenching ones. As I flip the pages, I see small sections of their time here at school. I will try, for you, to collect my memories of these four, the Friendship, especially the two, the ones of whom I have so many memories, the Great Romance.

The first one I come across is of breakfast the next day. Those four made quite the scene. Claire and Alina had sat next to each other, with Robin behind them at the Slytherin table. As far as I could tell when I arrived, very few words had passed, since Robin and Claire had leaned back into the aisle so they were holding each other up, and Claire had fallen asleep. My first snapshot of the Great Romance. Eleven years old and absolutely adorable. He was completely content to just sit there, though it was unclear whether he knew she was asleep as he kept talking to her. It was endearing though. But this is a memory of the whole Friendship. Soon, Akir actually left his table, the first to solidify the interhouse companionship of these four, and came to hover between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables. He and Alina engaged in some heated conversation which led to him leaping about and he soon knocked Claire and Robin down, leaving all four in a pile, a cute but goofy snapshot of the Friendship, all arms and legs.

They didn't make a huge name for themselves that first year. It can be assumed that they spent it getting to know each other and solidifying their friendships. I have so many images of Claire and Alina sitting up late in each other's beds, talking and laughing, sometimes crying, that they have all become one. One eternal image of a cute blonde and a quirky brunette sharing secrets like sisters. Alina accusing Claire of being sweet on Robin and Claire shooting back the same accusation about Akir. Claire never really answered, though Alina denied vehemently. They talked about professors and their homework. Often, they comforted each other after hard days or "traumatic" experiences. In my mind's album, that picture is pasted just below the pile in the Great Hall.

A similar number of memories place them in the lake. Sometimes only the girls, but often all four. They were there more than anyone else I remember. Akir, Gryffindor to the bone, was always showing off. Then again, the girls tended to show off too. Alina looked at least as cute in a bathing suit as a robe, if not more so. The water seemed to be Claire's element. In fact, it was often, if not always, she who suggested a swim. Robin tended to play. He just liked to mess around. A picture of Akir and Alina racing while Claire sneaks up on an unsuspecting Robin remains firmly stuck next to the girls in the dorm.

The year would not be complete without this one shot. In the infirmary, on the last day of term. Akir had hurt himself in one of their "rule-bending" forays, and the other three were clustered around his bed, worry etched into every face. Robin, always a complete gentleman, was holding Claire's hand while she fought tears. Alina was nervously flitting about. Then, to their great relief, Akir came to. A reincarnation of the pile in the Great Hall occurred on his bed before he realized how "unmanly" that was and kicked them off. This was soon followed by good-byes, tearful and promise-filled. They closed their year with a group hug that even Akir couldn't say "no" to. That picture just leaves you reaching to turn the page and see what the next year brought them.


	4. Second Year

A page is turned and new pictures revealed. The second year of the Friendship. I see them in my mind's eye, frozen in time at the age of twelve.

Another Welcoming Feast. This year, the Friends knew just how to sit. Robin behind Claire, Alina beside her, and Akir, carefully positioned across the hall to mouth with them. Every house welcomed new students, and the four showed proper pride for their housemates. Frozen in my picture of that feast is the expressions on their faces, especially their eyes. Each, indeed, had pride for their house, but also for the others, and the school as a whole. The depth of their pride ran back in time to a period before the factioning of the Founders. That is what glints back at me out of my album page.

Some memories are the same, pictures of the girls talking into the night and swims at the lake, but some are different. This was the year of Akir and Alina's reign over the Friendship. My page is filled with images of the four of them sneaking about in hidden passages, out on pre-teen "quests." I always felt that journeys of discovery are best left undisturbed, so I left them to it. I floated by, a piece of the background in the exciting tapestry of their young lives. But forever in my memories of them will be a picture of their four heads, stuck around a corner, looking to see if there is a teacher roaming about.

Akir and Alina made their respective quidditch teams, Akir a beater and Alina a keeper. They practiced together incessantly. They always encouraged Robin and Claire to join them, suggesting that a chaser would help, but it would seem that Robin had some disagreements with heights and Claire quickly proved her vehement hatred of broomsticks by falling off of hers several times. They still loyally attended every game and even followed them out to practice. From my perch at a window in Ravenclaw tower, I saw the blond keeper and spastic beater swooping about above a studious brunette, attempting to concentrate on her homework, and a blonde, easily concentrating on a single blade of grass. Sometimes, the airborne pair would stay out late and Claire would fall asleep. Robin would call Alina down for the password to our commonroom, which she would give him on the understanding that he would use it as he did, to carry the sleepyhead in and lay her on one of the couches. Alina later woke her to take her up to the dorm. His furtive late night entrances stay in my mind.

The final solidification of the Friendship came a short way into their second year. I can still picture the infirmary. Somehow, the boys had ended up on some "mission" and had gotten in trouble. They were forced to rely on each other to survive, though they both emerged in bad shape. They were lying on beds beside each other and the girls, faces filled with fear, were between the two, holding hands and crying through the night until they found the two healed. After this experience, the weak link between Akir and Robin, an unlikely pair, became a bond nearly as strong as that between Claire and Alina.

Unfortunately, all school years must end in parting, and their was sweet. The girls cried and the boys, mostly Robin, comforted. Akir kept telling them all of the fun things they would do the next year. He insisted that there would always be new passages to find and mysteries to solve. Eventually everyone calmed down and there were hugs all around, to Akir's displeasure, before they quietly made their way back to their respective dorms, as it must have been nearly midnight.


	5. Third Year

And time moves on. Not even for the innocent children will it pause. Soon, they returned for their third year at Hogwarts.

Their third Welcoming Feast. Their habits, by now, were diehard, but a change had come over the Friends. The summer had left Alina with a new glow in her cheeks and Akir with an extra glint in his eye. This was the year the Friendship reigned. They had made a name for themselves the year before, and now they merely had to maintain it. Even though they were third years, they could not have imagined their position within the school, and the whole wizarding world. They were the image of interhouse companionship. An extra change had come over Claire and Robin. They both returned to school with a light in their eyes and previously normal comfortable confrontations seemed nervous and strained. Even just sitting behind each other, they seemed tense. But my image of them is not like that. I caught them in one of those few moments when Akir's antics and Alina's stories caught them off-guard. They forgot to be nervous and were sitting comfortably, their eyes shining such that onlookers should be blinded, which was quite proper. This would be the first year of the Great Romance.

I saw that turning point moment, late one night, when Claire admitted to Alina that she "like-liked" Robin. The image of the two girls muffling excited shrieks and plotting to "set them up" is one of my favorites.

I was also present for Robin's confession to Akir. The shorter boy jumped him one day and dragged him into a deserted classroom I happened to pass through. Wand out, he demanded that Robin tell him if he liked a girl. Robin admitted his crush on their friend and Akir's response, the force of disbelief and revultion, is what is frozen in my mind. I can still hear him say "Ew, a girl? Really? I'll never like a girl! They're gross!" in his Scottish accent.

I didn't have to float invisibly into a room to see the first moments of the Great Romance. It happened right in the Great Hall as the students assembled for dinner. No one really knows just how it happened, but Claire was knocked forward and Robin caught her, his hands around her waist, their eyes locked. Students at Hogwarts aren't blind, they had seen this coming, the silence spread quickly. Both blushed and the waiting hush of the students became and awkward silence for them. Claire attempted to regain her balance, bringing her feet back beneath her, which raised her a few inches, just as Robin bent forward. They stopped, inches apart, then, finally, crossed that small gap and kissed, to thunderous applause. They jumped apart, grinning sheepishly. Finally, as the clapping died, Robin held his hand out to Claire and they walked to the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables together. They looked at each other, then Claire took a seat at the Slytherin table, beckoning Robin to join h er. Alina, looking excited enough to burst, almost skipped to a seat behind them. Akir, scowling a bit dramatically, skulked to the Gryffindor table and was careful to glare at them all through the meal.

Again, their year was spent in trips to the lake and late night "missions." One of Alina and Akir's most interesting missions was to locate their vanishing friends. I had found them long before, they had discovered a small room off the library, one I rather enjoy myself, and spent quite a vast amount of time talking on the couch in front of the fire. They talked about everything, or rather, Claire did, though Robin did his share at times. Usually, they ended their evening with a chaste parting kiss, the love of thirteen-year-olds. But Akir and Alina didn't know where their friends were sneaking off to, and were not of a mind to merely ask. It took them the better part of the year, but one night, both searching independently, they finally found the entrance to that room, and ran into each other there. When they overcame their surprise and compared notes, they realized why their friends disappeared and, for the first time I ever saw, curbed their curiosity. I see them, quietly sneaking away. They never let on that they knew, and that room was Robin and Claire's secret until well after their school days.

All in all, the number of points the four lost that year for their respective houses should have made them the least popular students in the school, as the Hufflepuffs frown on suicide, but conversely, they were the most. Even the older students respected them. A few disliked them, but only those who felt overshadowed, and they didn't have much to say. I remember how they cut a swath down the halls and hardly even noticed it. Akir and Alina, plotting avidly, followed by Claire and Robin, holding hands. Crowds would part, kids would try to hear what the first two were saying while girls "ooh" and "ahh"-ed the couple and guys tried to keep their attention, grabbing their hands and waists.


	6. Fourth Year

Even magic can't halt the inevitable progression of time. Before I knew it, the doors of Hogwarts had opened again and the Friends returned.

Welcoming Feast number four. They were now officially among the upperclassmen, yet they received more respect and attention then most of the seventh years. Within the hall, they might as well have merited personal spotlights, they stood out so, even without effort. Alina now sat back to back with Robin, Claire sat in his lap. They had been attached at the hip since they entered the building. Akir, not about to abandon his house, merely shouted across the hall every time he wanted to say something. Robin and Claire seemed nervous during the Sorting, and, it seemed, for good reason. Almost immediately, Professor McGonagall called a familiar name. "Belbusti, John-Brucco." Cliare's little brother looked just like her. "JB," he mumbled and crawled under the Hat. He was headed for the Hufflepuff table when his sister reached him. She nearly smothered him, but he soon managed to slip away. Just as she reached Robin's lap, a boy named Eli was called up. "Crane, Eli." He looked vaguely like Robin, and I soon learned that they were cousins. He, too, went to Hufflepuff, where he sat with JB. Another friendship, and the original four at their height.

Although Robin and Claire were ahead of the curve, the fourth years were now starting to pair off. Alina had managed to smoothly combine her cute look with a slightly older one and was soon borrowing Akir's beater's bat to protect herself. Akir, after spending the summer training to avoid another defeat at Ravenclaw's hands, had brought some real tone to his muscles and ended up borrowing his bat back. Soon, he announced that it was pointless to hate girls when they seemed to love him. I can see the look on Claire and Robin's faces, they didn't swallow that any more than I did. But it was nice to know that sports-boy had some hormones. Alina very much agreed with Akir's theory, and the two were soon cutting swaths through the school's population.

Trips to the lake were regularly crashed by JB and Eli, the Terrible Two. It seemed that JB was used to chasing Claire out of the water. Actually, it seemed that the four were sitting ducks compared to Claire alone. She took to making more of her trips by herself, though, really, she usually spent about two minutes swimming around, then ducked under to resurface up to a half hour later. She would float, and seemed very introspective at these times. I often watched her from the tower, floating on her back, her hair framing her thoughtful face.

Robin and Claire continued to spend time alone, especially when Akir and Alina were on dates. They used a bit less of that time talking, though it seemed, perhaps, that Claire was avoiding it. They spent a lot of time just sitting and being together in silence before the fire. Robin didn't seem to mind the quiet, and Claire seemed deep in thought. She often opened her mouth to begin to tell him something, then thought better and shut it again.

Their end of year goodbyes were interrupted by the younger two, but soon all six were hugging. Robin and Claire had a goodbye kiss that actually lasted for more than five seconds. The all laughed as they walked out for the summer.


	7. Fifth Year

Time is like a circle; it always continues, but always comes back on itself. Only a short while after the children walked out the door, they were walking back in, tanned and eager to resume their time at Hogwarts. I saw the four in the crowd, finding each other and trying to stick together.

Another Welcoming Feast, another new year. Sitting as they usually do, the Friends paid little attention to the Sorting. Claire and Robin were rediscovering their love for each other, even at fifteen, to Eli's confusion and JB's disgust. Alina was studiously trying not to watch them. She was instead apparently scoping out the Slytherin's for a date. Akir was taking his look through the Hufflepuffs. He was especially looking at one of their chasers. Once the meal began, however, everyone very busily caught up on each other's summers, even Akir's from across the hall.

Akir and Alina, now known about the school as heartthrobs, embraced a new idea: the double date. They began to go together on their dates, making trips into Hogsmeade and the like. Unfortunately, they then gained a new reputation, for setting up couples. Most of the people the two went out with ended up together. This actually very much frustrated Akir and Alina. Finally, they decided that there was no point to the double dating and started dating each other. Two couples in the hall now, and most people couldn't decide which was cuter. Then Akir and Alina broke up, a whole two weeks later. They were just not meant to be.

Claire and Alina's nocturnal conversations got rather deep and philosophical that year. Claire had a tendency to ask moral questions like, if it was alright to keep something important from one's boyfriend in this and that circumstance. Alina had a very level answer for her, especially when she lost her head about it: "Robin loves you, you can tell him anything." I still see her concerned face, never asking what was bothering her so, just supporting her entirely.

Even Robin and Akir were having conversations like this. Robin knew something was bothering his girlfriend, but he had no idea what. Akir had a habit of shrugging his shoulders and saying "She's a girl, she'll figure it out."

Akir's little sister Aya had arrived that year, not that Akir paid much attention. However, she preoccupied JB, as she became very attached to him, almost to the point of stalking. She learned his given name and developed the habit of squealing "Johnny!" down the hall after him. I remember how she could spot him from halfway down the hall and his pathetic attempts to hide behind Eli, not exactly becoming of the Hufflepuff quidditch team's new star chaser.

Their year ended in the standard awkwardness of sixteen-year-olds. There were still hugs all around, but Alina and Robin worried about Claire, while Akir just distanced himself a bit. Claire was concerned about Robin. Things actually became tense among the Friends for a few moments. Then Eli tore through the group, propelled by JB with Aya in hot pursuit.


	8. Sixth Year

The grounds bloomed and, just as the leaves began to fall, the students returned. I often wish they could see the grounds in the summer. But they don't, they go home and return to us for the fall, another beautiful season. They pour through the doors, ignorant of the beauty that they have missed. Even the Friends did not realize what went on here while they were gone. However, they were hypersensitive to their own summer activities.

Their sixth Welcoming Feast found them ignoring the awkwardness of the previous year. Claire's face was set with determination that deepened when she looked at Robin. Alina chattered about her summer and they shouted back and forth with Akir, adding a few loudly voiced jibes about Aya and JB. They looked, overall, as they usually did, but there was something wrong.

The Feast was soon followed by one of Claire and Robin's great stepping stone. Sitting alone, Claire took his hand and informed him, as the world later discovered, that she was part mermaid, and a throw back to her water-dependent ancestor in her need to swim. She rambled a bit about how the merblood dirtied her wizarding blood and asked him, oddly, for forgiveness. Then she left. I remember his face, his mouth open, his eyes searching the room as though she had hidden. He looked lost.

Claire cried. She stayed in her bed and wouldn't talk to Alina or come out at all. Her best friend brought her food, pulling the curtains of her bed some six inches open to hand it in. The worry etched into her face was almost disturbing.

While roaming the school, I came upon a very different scene. Around three in the morning, I followed the sound of music into the Slytherin commonroom and came upon Robin, singing. At the time, I did not know the song he was singing with such energy, but later found it to be "Oh! Darling" by the muggle band The Beatles, which contained sentiments perhaps only Claire should have heard. He sang it over and over, seemingly trying to work out his feelings.

Here I pause in my reflections to admit my involvement. I love the students of my house like my own children, and I hate seeing them hurt. I found Peeves, to ask a favor. He must have found it amusing, as he obediently chased poor Claire out of bed and the tower, into the hall, her blanket and a bear Robin gave her in hand. Her hair was tousled and her eyes were red. Sleepily, she followed me all of the way to the entrance of the Slytherin commonroom where I left her, but I was unable to avoid watching.

Realizing where she was, Claire began to pound on the entrance. When Robin himself came to answer it, she stood, mouthing nothing, and began to cry again. Robin pulled her into the commonroom, muttering words of love and acceptance. I didn't stay any longer, but they were discovered the next morning on a couch in the commonroom.

Stronger than ever before, the relationships between the four flourished. They were like a royal court within the school. Continuing to get in trouble, they extended their exploits to include more that benefited other students. They were constantly petitioned, known as the people who could get things done, and they enjoyed it. However, they once again ended on a worrisome note. This time, Alina had taken the largest blow of a botched mission. Seeing Akir sitting bedside was almost odd, but he was there, trying not to act too worried, glancing up over her bed at Robin and Claire, who also remained by her side, though they slept during parts of Akir's 36 hour vigil. From his lamentations I would suspect that he blamed himself for her condition. When she awoke, however, his response was a gruff good morning and a complaint about having to worry. Not that he would worry, so he said.

The end of the year arrived like a slap of cold air. The sixth year students were starting to think about after school, so they were even more anxious about leaving their friends. The final night of the term, the Friendship collected in a passage for goodbyes, where they were once again crashed by JB and Eli. No one could figure out how they were found, the boys were just good at it. Of course, where JB goes, Aya arrives. She popped in a moment later. Akir and Claire were a bit vexed by the sibling invasion, but Robin liked his cousin and Alina had taken a real shine to Aya. Unfortunately, they were there quite late and all of the younger kids fell asleep. The Hufflepuffs they couldn't help, no one had their password. They would have taken Aya to bed but she had somehow ended up under Eli. Shrugging, they left the three in the secret way to straighten themselves out in the morning. They got the cold shoulder on the train ride home for not awakening them, which suited Akir and Claire just fine. The four rode in one compartment, the girls crying, and the guys trying not to.


	9. Seventh Year

The years fly. Already, they were in their seventh year and about to graduate. Watching them come in the door, I was struck once again with the amount of control and respect they had attained. I also noticed, in their wake, several younger imitations of their interhouse bond. I wonder who really were the teachers at Hogwarts while they were there?

Their final Welcoming Feast. They were now like fixtures at their places, applauding politely for every addition to their house tables. Dumbledore made a statement about interhouse friendships and indicated them specifically. At twelve or thirteen, the four would have been embarrassed by the unwanted attention, but at seventeen, they acted as adults, sitting tall and being the example he held them up as.

In their final year, students rarely maintain their grades of the previous six. Akir was a prime example, his classes divebombed as he ceased to pay attention. Luckily for him, Alina, a Ravenclaw at heart, and Robin, grade conscious to the end, badgered him into doing enough work not to fail out. Claire nearly collapsed under a heavy courseload, but managed with the loving support of her friends.

They spent a bit of extra time with their relatives this year, often swimming. Aya had given up chasing JB, setting her sights on various guys at whim. Now, the three were forming a fast friendship of their own. JB, always a bit of a role model for Claire, became more of an older brother to Aya, since Akir didn't talk to her much. He did, however, spend large amounts of time indoctrinating the Hufflepuffs in the ways of trouble making.

It is a fact little known to the younger years that seventh year girls get individual dorms. Most of the boys don't ever find out. They were hindered by the inability to enter the girls' dorms. Robin, however, was one of the first to find a way around it. The Ravenclaw girls soon learned to ignore the rather funny looking Slytherin climbing the stairs in a dress, having discovered that the spell on the entrance was only surface discriminatory. Those who knew overlooked him since everyone knew that neither of them would bring their house a bad name.

These friends could not manage to leave without leaving some great memory of their departure. Gyffindor took the Quidditch Cup, much to Akir's credit, though Alina also performed superbly. On the eve of their graduation, following the raucous celebration in Gryffindor tower, they all disappeared, wands and all, to be discovered asleep on the quidditch pitch the next morning. The pitch was no longer its standard green marked white, however. The four had spent the majority of the night growing flowers all over the field in red, blue, green, silver, yellow, gold, black, and (for reasons completely unknown, but commonly attributed to the butterbeer at the Gryffindor party) pink. Since then, the field of flowers has been banished to the border, but the flowers at the border are maintained in the original random color arrangement, contrasting the sectioned stands above them.

Graduation went smoothly, a special day for special kids. Robin pulled Claire aside early on, and she practically floated the rest of the night. By the dinner, Alina and Akir were recruited for the wedding of the century as the best man and the maid of honor. Then, they approached the parents. They said "too young" but the couple was obstinate and they eventually gave in. Akir toasted them, making their engagement public. Watching closely, I could even swear I saw a tear in his eye.


	10. The Wedding

It wasn't terribly uncommon for alumni to come back to Hogwarts for large functions. But the seventeen year olds hardly left. School let out and the castle was scrubbed in preparation. As the day arrived, white roses and ribbons began appearing all over. Soon, all of the wedding decorations were set, the house elves were busily working on food for the reception, and the photographer and wedding planner were making their rounds of the grounds to choose the prime locations for the pictures.

The day arrived. In the bridal chambers, Claire was being primped by her entire Italian family. She positively glowed in her white robes and veil. Alina continuously mooned over the well cut style of these expensive robes, including her own pink set in the process. As the bride started to feel nervous, her top notch maid of honor began to casually mull over the bachelorette party she had thrown the week before. She soon had Claire easily alternating from laughter to embarrassment in the presence of her mother. Aya and one of Claire's closer cousins were to be her bridesmaids and were being decked out in baby blue. Aya seemed a bit young, but Claire's response was "So am I."

The groom's chambers were similarly busy. Robin wasn't even visible among the multitude of Irish women, vacillating between crying and readying him for his big day. Finally, Akir snuck him out of the chamber to get him to the Great Hall. JB and Eli, standing up as his groomsmen, followed them. As they awaited the start of the ceremony, Akir and Robin talked about the bachelor party. It had been a bit different than it would have been if he was older. Robin and all of his friends couldn't have anything stronger than butterbeer. So instead of getting smashed, as was typical, the boys watched Robin's relatives get drunk, which was almost more entertaining.

Once everyone was in place, Dumbledore walked up to the front. He flicked his wand and strains of the wedding march floated across the hall, drowning out the varied murmurs of "too young" throughout the guests. I kept to a corner in the back. When Claire and her father started down the aisle, the look in Robin's eyes was so torn between tears and shouts of joy I feared for a moment that he might just pass out. We have all been to weddings, and while this one was exceptionally beautiful and sweet, very little was different from a regular one. Dumbledore presided and everyone knows the vows they wrote for each other. Not an eye was dry and not another "too young" was spoken.

Everyone went outside for the pictures while the Hall was converted for the reception. The photographer and wedding planner had chosen certain places for the shots, but the newly wed Killinghams insisted on some in places that were special to them, like the lake. When the whole party came back inside, there were tables for everyone. The wedding party was seated at that high table. The toasts are famous, especially Akir's, a memorable speech about cooperation and friendship. The couple danced all night and was given the Head Boy's room for their honeymoon. They disappeared up there as the evening closed, and Claire's parents saw the guests out.


	11. The Reunion

The years passed. Friendships came and went. Harry Potter and his friends came through the school, leaving their own mark. Yet the legacy of the Friendship remained. Dumbledore referred to their bonds specifically in the face of the rising Dark Lord just before his second fall. However, we did not see them at the school for ten years, only hearing rumors of their exploits.

On the tenth anniversary of their graduation, a reunion was planned, bringing the Friendship back to their old stomping grounds. None of them arrived on time, in fact, they were the last ones in the door. Alina came first, looking positively beautiful with a chaser on her arm. She was now an auror of some standing. She was followed by Akir, who arrived alone. He was probably the least likely to leave alone, however, as every single woman at the reunion was eying him. He had made a name for himself in quidditch as a beater. The Killinghams arrived last. Claire straightened her hair on her way in the door, followed by Robin, with one kid on his shoulders, one on each side of him, and two behind him. They were big names now, known as an equality activist couple. Claire worked in the Department of Mysteries while Robin stayed home. Her background had come out in public, to a much better reception than was expected. However, they still did a lot of work for the equality of wizards with humanoid part blood. It turned out that Alina was engaged to her chaser. She spent the whole evening introducing him to their class. Claire did the majority of the social interaction for her family while Robin introduced the children to various people. Everyone knows the Killingham kids: Margaret Allegra, Anthony Cale, Duncan Marmaduke, Julia Rosalden, and Morgan Starr, the baby at a year old.


	12. The Funeral

I didn't expect to ever see the Friends again, and I didn't for many years. But suddenly, one summer, Ms. Morgan Starr Killingham, now also an alumnus of Hogwarts, requested the use of the hall.

Claire Belbusti Killingham's funeral was as beautiful as her wedding. There were lilies everywhere and Robin refused to see black decorations. At 47, Claire had been asked to follow a younger member of the Department of Mysteries on a slightly dangerous information gathering mission. Although she knew her way around, sometimes accidents are unavoidable, and she met with a fatal one. Robin, just beginning to grey at the ears, stood in the hall surrounded by his five children, young Morgan only 21. They cried over their mother's casket as the wizarding world mourned its loss as well. Soon, the other grievers began to arrive. Very early on, Akir arrived tailed by a preteen son. Alina and her husband arrived soon after with their twin daughters, lovely, composed sixteen-year-olds. Those who knew Claire poured in the door. Not the least of these was JB, with Eli, as he had always been. They now shared a home, a life, and three small children out near Eli's dragon herd. Eli was nearly holding his lover up, such was her little brother's grief.  
Dumbledore, now retired as headmaster, arrived to preside over the service. Alina, Akir, Robin, and JB all spoke about her. Alina tearfully recalled all of their time together and enumerated her best friend's best qualities. Akir, openly crying, spoke to her loyalty and bravado, calling her an honorary Gryffindor. Robin spoke of her as the light of his life. He named her an excellent mother and wife as well as a hard worker. JB was barely able to speak, but the words he managed were all about her loving nature and the example she set for others.

After the service, her open coffin was left out for a viewing. I distinctly heard Robin say "She always looked seventeen." Many of the mourners also commented that she didn't age. She had the timelessness of a model Ravenclaw.

She was interred, at Robin's request, on the Hogwarts grounds, at the far corner of the lake she spent so much of her youth in. If you wish, you could still visit her grave. Anthony, the eldest Killingham son, killed in his position with the Ministry some years later, is buried with her.

It is common knowledge that Robin left Claire's funeral and immediately began the process, through the Ministry, of becoming a dementor. It is difficult to tell, but it is said he still works at Azkaban. Akir played quidditch through retirement and Alina beat the survival rate for aurors by some thirty years. They stayed in touch even after Claire and Robin had departed. The Friendship never truly left Hogwarts though. Their antics echo through the halls year after year speaking of cooperation and interhouse love to every new generation of wizards.


End file.
